Image: Russell Colvin.

DesmoSport Ducati newcomer Corey Turner put in a highly-impressive two days at Morgan Park’s Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) two-day test this week in Queensland.

In what was his first official outing with the team, Turner lodged the fourth fastest times on both days, which saw right on pace with the regular front runners of the premier category.

The Queenslander mentioned the Ducati 1299 Panigale S felt more like his own each and every time he hit the track, with a combination of settings in the final session enabling him to deliver a super quick 1m13.478s time.

“Every session out on it, it just started feeling more and more like my own bike,” Turner explained to CycleOnline.com.au. “It’s definitely hard changing bikes in the same week, but the boys gave me a great bike from the word go, and it was just minor adjustments whole time.

“The first day we set out on the dry bike, and the second day we started on the wet bike to run the engine a little bit – that has a different geometry setup, so we pulled the best bits off both bikes and put them together for the last session on the second day, and yeah, that’s where the laptime came from.”

Turner, who was previously contesting the ASBK series as a Yamaha-mounted privateer before being drafted into the DesmoSport team to replace injured athlete Callum Spriggs, said his pace has given him a boost of confidence heading into Morgan Park’s fifth round at the end of the month.

“It’s such a confidence boost,” he continued. “I’ve never really been that good in practice or qualifying – my best laps normally come in the race. So to go out there on a test day and be up there with the front guys is a massive confidence boost for the next race.”

The teenager has been a revelation in the 2017 series, posting a host of credible results, including a fourth place finish at Hidden Valley’s fourth round last month in Darwin.